Hermione ran through the bustling crowd, she couldn’t believe that she might miss the damn Hogwarts Express.

She had longed for that steaming train so much. She wanted to sit with her friends, laugh and joke about the slytherin’s, hear the familiar yell of the trolley lady as she pushed the rattling cart down the aisle and hollered, “Anything off the trolley, dears?”

What she missed most though, was just being with her best friends.

Scratch that, her best friend and her boyfriend.

Even though it had only been a few days since she had seen Ron and Harry she still missed them so much. They had been through too much together over the past year, and had been nearly inseparable over the summer; it was hard to be apart, even for a little while.

No matter how happy they all were to be together after having made it through the war in one piece, the start of the summer had been nothing less than terrible. The loss of so many friends took its toll on the golden trio, especially Harry, who blamed himself and had even attempted to run off.

If it hadn’t been for Ginny, Hermione shuddered to think where he might be.

Ginny, as well as the rest of the Weasley family, had been grieving for the loss of Fred. Despite her own sorrow, Ginny had become the rock in the family over the summer, being there for whoever needed her.

Hermione glanced around, hoping to see if there were any other Hogwarts students as late as she was, only to realize she was surrounded by just muggles, Hermione mentally slapped herself for being late to a train that waits for no one. She was never late, why did tardiness have to plage her today, of all days?

She picked up her pace so that she was now sprinting through King’s cross. Pushing and shoving as hard as she could through the dense crowd, Hermione could finally see the archway that led to platform 9 ¾ only metres away.

But, as the clock up ahead struck 10:59, she didn’t see what her chances were of getting herself and her luggage onto the train.

She bolted through to the platform and towards the gleaming locomotive that already appeared to be in motion; she ever so quickly scanned the carriages to look for anyone to pull her up.

Feeling discontented, Hermione decided to take a wild leap, pulling out her wand she cast a charm on her trunk so it floated right into one of the carriages. With a sigh of relief Hermione jumped onto the train, but what she hadn’t anticipated was for it to speed up at that very moment. With a silent scream, she lost her footing and slipped to find herself hanging on with only one hand grasped onto one of the many doors of the Express train. Panicking, she held on as tight as possible, hoping for someone to find her quickly. She didn’t expect, however, for that person to be Draco Malfoy.

Her first thought was that he was going to just laugh at her and watch as she fell to her untimely demise.

Never in a million years did she expect for him to grab onto her intensely the second he saw her, holding on with all his might,

“Hold on Granger, I got you!”

If she hadn’t been so very scared that she was about to die, Hermione felt as though her death could have been caused from shock instead.

Draco Malfoy, saving her? This had to be a dream.

One final, massive heave caused Hermione to fall onto Draco, while he stumbled back and fell to the floor of the train.

She got off as quickly as she could, but not before she noticed a sickly look in his eyes.

She decided to let that go, for now. There were much more pressing matters at hand.

Draco seemed to wake out of a haze suddenly, he looked over at Hermione as though he couldn’t believe what he had just done.

Composing his face into one of his classic smirks he pushed himself up from the ground to tower over Hermione.

“Don’t look so shocked Granger, and don’t think I saved you because I actually like you. You’re still a filthy mudblood in my eyes, but I couldn’t just let you die, now could I? Not with all the fun I’m going to have irritating you this year.”

Hermione looked at him perplexed, not only was she starting to feel the embarrassment and anger wash over her; she was becoming really confused by what Draco had just said.

“What the hell are you talking about, Malfoy?” Hermione questioned as she got to her feet. Her eyes barely reached the point of his chin. “What, are you planning on taking after Daddy dearest again? Forming a lovely little death eater group at Hogwarts? Oh wont he be so proud!”

Rage, and something else that Hermione couldn’t put her finger on washed over Draco’s smirk, she realized too late that it was misery. (Love this line!)

“How dare you, you vile little mudblood,” he again seemed to tower over Hermione as though she was sitting down again. “You don’t know anything about me at all!”

Hermione’s entire body felt like cowering, but she kept her face blank and refused to look away from him.

“Oh and by the way Mudblood, I only meant that I’d be irritating you this entire year due to the fact that I’ve become Head Boy and rumor has it you’re head girl. Great start to the year Granger, we’re going to have so much fun.” He finished with a smirk, then turned his back and headed towards the front of the train.

Hermione was left feeling the cold winds of the open carriage door and the shock of what had just happened.

She couldn’t decide what was worse. That Draco Malfoy has just humiliated her, or that she was going to be stuck with him this entire year as the heads of the school.

Deep down though, the worst feeling she had was that her life was just saved, and not even a simple thank you and left her lips. Even if it was directed to a slime-ball like Draco Malfoy.

After seeing the misery pour out of his normally cold grey eyes, Hermione started to feel guilty. Until she remembered that he was Draco Malfoy and he had just ensured her that he was going to make her final year at Hogwarts hell.

She sighed and retrieved her stuff,muttering to herself while she went to search for her friends.